Various vinyl aromatic compounds can be prepared by the catalytic dehydrogenation of corresponding C2 or C3 alkyl aromatic compounds. Such reactions include the catalytic dehydrogenation of monoalkyl or polyalkyl aromatics, such as ethylbenzene and diethylbenzene or the dehydrogenation of alkyl substituted polynuclear aromatic compounds, such as ethylnaphthalene. Perhaps the mostly widely used dehydrogenation process involves the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene for the production of styrene. Analogous dehydrogenation reactions can be carried out employing C3 alkyl aromatic compounds. Thus, n-propyl benzene can be dehydrogenated to produce beta methyl styrene, and cumene can be dehydrogenated to produce alpha methyl styrene. Other reactions include but are not limited to the dehydrogenation of ethyl toluene to produce vinyl toluene and the dehydrogenation of diethylbenzene to produce divinylbenzene.
It is well known in the art of styrene manufacture to react ethylbenzene (EB) in the presence of steam over a dehydrogenation catalyst such as iron oxide under dehydrogenation reaction conditions in order to strip hydrogen from the ethyl group on the benzene ring to form the styrene molecule. This may be done in a series of reactors, which are commonly termed EB dehydrogenation reactors. The reactors may be radial adiabatic type reactors. The dehydrogenation reactors generally are elongated, cylindrical, vertical structures of a size ranging in diameter from about five to about sixteen feet or more, and in length from about ten feet to about one hundred feet or more. The reactor may allow for input of the ethylbenzene gas at an inlet located in the center of the vertical reactor, whereupon the gas is flowed radially outward through an annular area, passing through an annular porous catalyst bed of iron oxide or other suitable dehydrogenation catalyst, and then passing through an outer annular area to exit the reactor shell. Conversely, the input of ethylbenzene gas may enter the reactor via the outer most annulus area, passing through the catalyst bed in the direction of the center of the reactor. Because the flow of ethylbenzene across the catalyst bed is in a radial direction, these reactors are sometimes identified as “radial” reactors.
In some embodiments of an EB dehydrogenation process there can be multiple radial adiabatic reactors arranged in series, with one or more ways of reheating between the reactors to add heat lost to the endothermic reaction. Each reactor may have a different selectivity catalyst from the catalyst of the other reactors. “Selectivity” in this instance is considered by one skilled in the art to mean the ability of the catalyst to selectively produce higher levels of the desirable styrene and lower levels of the undesirable toluene and benzene. “Activity” is considered to be the ability of the catalyst to convert a certain percentage of ethylbenzene to aromatics for each pass of feedstock over the catalyst at a specific temperature. An example of a conventional radial reactor can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,698 to Butler, et al.
Because of the adiabatic design of conventional EB dehydrogenation reactors and the endothermic nature of the dehydrogenation reaction, conventional EB dehydrogenation processes require the addition of heat to the process to drive the dehydrogenation reaction and achieve an economic per pass conversion of EB. This, in turn, necessitates the use of multiple reactors in order to provide opportunity to add heat during the process, which is accomplished by utilizing heaters or “reheaters” located between each of the serial reactors or between catalyst beds.
The additional heat into the process can be supplied, for example by indirect heat exchange with superheated steam, to the reheater located between two or more of the serial reactors. The superheated steam can have a temperature of approximately 1000° F. to 1650° F., for example. A limiting factor on the amount of heat that can be added to the process utilizing superheated steam may be the metallurgy of the reheater, the piping to the reheater, or the outlet piping of the heated reactants that may have a high temperature limit less than that of the superheated steam.
It is a continuing goal of the industry to heat hydrocarbon streams, especially reactant streams, uniformly and within relatively strict temperature limits to achieve the necessary temperatures, but also to avoid localized hot spots and consequential degradation of the hydrocarbon, such as to coking products.
For economic reasons it is desirable to lower the steam to hydrocarbon ratio of the process due to the costs incurred in generating and superheating steam. If hydrocarbon heating is no longer dependent upon the amount of steam needed to heat or reheat the process streams to and/or from reactors, more energy saving devices may be installed to lower the energy required to process the hydrocarbons. The desire to lower the steam to hydrocarbon ratio can be in conflict with the need to input heat into the process indirectly via a reheater. In view of the above, it would be beneficial to have a method of reducing the steam usage while also having the ability to independently add heat into the process.